Five Orioles stats that stand out -- the Manny Machado edition

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Machado is right on pace with last year’s 17.6 home run/fly ball rate at 17.7 percent this season, but in this vein, what stands out is just how little his batted ball profile has changed in the name of these career-high home run paces. Machado has managed to keep his line drive rate relatively flat — no higher than 20.6, no lower than 17.3 — while cutting down sharply on his ground balls. In 2014, he had a career-high 48.6 percent ground ball rate. This year, it’s 37.3 percent, with the entire difference represented in fly balls. His average hasn’t suffered for it much, either. Machado isn’t exactly the well-hit ground ball type, and this year isn’t really a threat to beat many out for hits, so this new batted ball profile fits as well as any for the blossoming slugger. [Source: FanGraphs]

Hidden within that narrative is an interesting nugget — only seven players in the American League see fastballs less often than Machado, whose 49.7 percent fastball rate makes him one of 10 players in the league that sees off-speed and breaking pitches more often than a heater. Even so, he leads the league in run value on the fastballs he does see, contributing a league-high 2.86 runs above average per 100 fastballs he’s thrown (wFB/C). Essentially, teams know not to throw Machado fastballs because he can handle and drive them, so they avoid it. Sometimes they’re stuck, and he reminds them why they tried to avoid that situation to begin with. [Source: FanGraphs]

When considering the career trajectory of Orioles third baseman Manny Machado, so much credence is given to the idea that he’s still in his age-23 season, and if he’s this good now, imagine what he could become.

Somehow, that doesn’t do justice to what he is now — a legitimate MVP candidate who is already at the second stage of such a career: Teams know about him and treat him like one of the league’s best players, and yet he still produces.

It will ultimately take the Orioles winning their division for Machado to be as strong of a candidate for MVP as he should be, but that shouldn’t detract from what he’s accomplishing, and the circumstances that impact that.

This week’s five stats that stand out focus on what has made Machado’s 2016 so special as the Orioles enter the stretch run.